


Better Coffee

by okemmelie



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, I guess????, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23244487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: Working at a coffee shop isn't always the most exciting thing in the world, but at least Paul's around to keep him company from time to time.
Relationships: Paul Matthews/Ted
Comments: 22
Kudos: 65





	Better Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> an anon requested chai coffee + coffeeshop au + childhood friends + "it’s just so hard not to fall in love with you" from this list of prompts: https://helenmcwife.tumblr.com/post/612368535908499456/au-trope-prompt-game

It’s another morning shift and while Ted hates his life and all the decisions he’s made leading up to this moment all the way from his bed to the coffee shop, he decides that maybe it’s not so bad once he actually gets to the building.

“Oh, thank  _ God  _ you’re finally here,” Emma says as soon as he steps through the door. She looks like she’s already ready to leave and he doesn’t blame him. She’s been here all night. “I know your shift doesn’t start for another 15 minutes, but I’m going home and you’re dealing with… him.” She does a vague motion in the direction of their corner table and sure enough, there is Paul.

The first time Paul came to the coffee shop while Ted was at work was the first time they’d seen each other since first year of high school. It had been another morning shift and Ted had been aimlessly scrolling through Twitter until Paul cleared his throat and they’d looked at each other, then immediately recognized each other. The rest is history.

Well, history and history. Paul still comes in almost every single morning, he still orders the same drink and he still convinces Ted to come sit with him at the corner table until more customers show up or Paul has to go to class, whichever comes first (usually it’s Ted’s customers).

Which is also exactly what happens today. As soon as Emma’s out of there, Ted gets behind the counter and starts making black coffee for the both of them (he’s tired, so he’s allowed too) and then he fucks over to their corner and sits the drinks down between them.

“You’re early,” he notes. It’s not even five am and no one (seriously, no one) should be up right now in Ted’s opinion.

Paul takes a sip of his coffee before greeting Ted with a faint smile. “Am I really though? Time is relative and you work in a coffee shop that’s open around the clock. Maybe you’re late. Maybe–”

“Shut up,” Ted mumbles into his cup of coffee. “I’m not having this discussion with you again. Time isn’t relative, it’s not a construct or whatever it is they try to tell you. It’s a dimension.” Paul opens his mouth, but Ted shakes his head. “No, I know what you’re going to say and you’re wrong. It’s just our measurement of time that’s a construct. Not time itself, okay? Time passes whether we record it or not.”

“Yeah, but–” This time, Paul holds a hand up when Ted tries to interrupt him, so Ted reluctantly leans back down in his chair and lets Paul talk about time. And, okay, maybe Ted doesn’t actually mind hearing him talk about it. Maybe he even enjoys it a little bit, despite his attempts to stop it. “It all depends on which theory of knowledge you look at it with. And I know you think I’m wrong, you’ve made that very clear, but some theories look at everything – even time – as a construct. And while it might not be relative in the way it passes, it’s still experienced very differently from person to person and from moment to moment, so in some dimension… it is still relative.”

Ted looks at Paul for a while, even narrows his eyes to make his stare a more intense one. “Fine. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re early.”

It seems that that’s something Paul can work with, because the time conversations ends and they start talking about other stuff instead (well, it’s not too different because Ted asks Paul about class and he doesn’t mind letting Paul discuss things from him sociology classes with him; and even though Ted’s contributions aren’t the best, Paul still manages to keep going for a good while).

Eventually, Ted leaves Paul alone at the corner table, as he actually has to go make coffee for people, seeing that it is his job and all. Paul sticks around for a good while and it’s nice to have the occasional conversation with someone he doesn’t hate.

Does he hate every single customer outside of Paul? Yes, but that’s because they keep him from doing what he wants to do most in the word, which is spending more time with Paul (which is not just a little annoying; it’s a lot annoying – who allowed him to develop feelings and why do these feelings insist on sticking around?)

Paul eventually has to leave, but he waits until Ted’s able to escape from behind the counter for a brief moment to give him a hug, which Ted appreciates. And maybe he lingers a bit too long, but Paul lets him and doesn’t comment on it, so he figures it’s good and that they’re fine.

Ted shoots Emma a text once he’s off work. Neither Ted nor Emma has work in the morning (well, Ted has the nightshift but that’s still more than twenty four hours away at this point) and he’s getting increasingly frustrated with the fact that he seemingly can’t go an hour without thinking about Paul. What he needs is a drink with a friend who isn’t Paul so he can talk about Paul and complain about having to experience emotions.

Luckily, she says yes. She doesn’t have plans either, but she’s always down for a drink and that’s what Ted appreciates about her. They buy cheap boxed wine (they’re both baristas, how the fuck are they going to get money for good wine?) and sit on Emma’s floor most of the night. And while Emma previously promised that she’d listen to him talk about Paul all he wanted, she takes her promise back around two am.

At four am, the box is empty and both of them are incredibly drunk. Ted asks if he can crash, but Emma tells him fuck no. She lives in a shitty one bedroom apartment and has no couch, only a single bed that she’s not sharing with him, no fucking way.

So Ted finds himself navigating his way home in the early ams. He also finds himself distracted, because he’s tired and drunk and all he wants is tea. So he goes to Beanie’s, because it’s on the way home and because he knows Zoey’s going to survive seeing him drunk. He gets his tea, he goes sit in his (and Paul’s!) corner and–

Ted falls asleep.

He knows this, because someone wakes him up about an hour later. Not just anyone. The man, the myth, the legend himself. Paul Matthews. He puts a hand on Ted’s shoulder and gives it a little squeeze and apparently, that’s enough. “Hey sleepy.”

Waking up is not fun and Ted absolutely doesn’t feel like he’s gotten enough sleep, but he does lazily smile at the sight of Paul. “Paul. Hi. What are you doing here?”

“Well, uh…” He looks over his shoulder, then back at Ted. At this point, Ted’s managed to sit himself up and he decides it’s a good idea to lean slightly into Paul’s touch. He turns out to be right, because Paul doesn’t remove his hand: He lets it wrap all the way across Ted’s shoulder instead and that’s nice. “I was gonna get coffee, but…”

“But?” Ted asks when Paul doesn’t finish his sentence.

It results in a nervous chuckle from Paul. “Zoey makes bad coffee. I don’t know how she manages to fuck up black coffee, but she does. So I was probably just going to go to Starbucks. Then I saw you in the window and… Now I’m here.”

“Now you’re here,” Ted repeats. “I’m glad you are. You’re really nice.”

Being drunk and smelling like alcohol has it perks, because it makes Ted feel much more comfortable with looking into Paul’s eyes. He has really pretty eyes, drunk Ted notes. Sober Ted probably agrees, but he’s not here right now. He also has a nice smile. “So you’ve been drinking, huh? What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, nothing.” There’s no way Ted’s telling him that what prompted this was his inability to talk about his feelings while he’s sober, because it sounds a little sad and pathetic. And Ted doesn’t want Paul to think he’s sad or pathetic. “Emma and I just really wanted to drink. So we did. Hooray for not working before the evening. Hey, speaking of Emma. You say you don’t like Zoey’s coffee, but what do you think of Emma’s? Worse or better than mine?”

Paul answers immediately. “Worse. Emma’s coffee is shit. You make better coffee.”

It makes Ted smile. “Thank you,” he says as he holds a hand to his heart. He doesn’t really care about being the best at making coffee, but he does care about being the best in the eyes of Paul and the fact that he’s better than Emma of all people makes it a little more fun. Then he pulls his phone out of his pocket and texts her to let her know that Paul thinks his coffee is the best and that he called her coffee shit, because it’s even more fun if she knows as well. “Hey Paul?”

“Yeah?”

“Walk me home?”

With a nod, Paul gets up and the two of them make their way towards Ted’s apartment. Paul keeps an arm around him and Ted also manages to wrap an arm around Paul as they walk and it’s only half out of the need to balance himself better.

Ted drops his keys in his attempt to unlock his door, which makes Paul laugh a little. Then Paul steps up. He picks up the keys from the floor and he unlocks the door for them. “Here we are.”

“Here we are,” Ted repeats. Then he tries to make it inside his apartment, but he stumbles a bit and luckily, Paul is there to catch him which only makes him smile. _ God, it’s just so hard not to fall in love with you. _

“What?” Paul asks, looking confused, but is luckily still not letting go of him.

Ted comes to the conclusion that he must have mumbled instead of just fucking keeping his stupid thoughts to himself. He needs to save this, so he says the first thing that comes to mind. “I said it’s just so hard not to fall in this house.”

“Oh.” Paul’s face seems to drop a bit, which Ted doesn’t really understand. He thought it was a pretty good save. “I, uh… I better get going. You think you’ll be alright?”

Ted nods. “Yeah. I just gotta sleep it off and I’ll be so ready for my shift tonight. God, who even came up with the idea of a constantly open coffee shop?”

“I don’t know. Probably someone who thought desperate students would spend their money there,” Paul says with a shrug. He still hasn't made an effort to get out of the door, nor has he made an effort to get Ted out of his arms.

Ted’s good with this development (or rather, lack of development). Because being in Paul’s arms is pretty good. He tries his best to stand up a bit more and he uses Paul as a support beam to do so. When he feels like he’s standing properly enough, he lets his arms rest around Paul’s neck, because he can and because he wants to. “You’re probably right,” he says with a nod. Then he notices a fault in his plan. In his quest to stand up a bit more, he’s also moved closer to Paul. And while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does make him want to kiss him. This isn’t unusual for him, but it just feels so much more doable now than it ever has (somehow he always finds himself thinking about being in situations where he can kiss Paul more than he finds himself in actual situations where kissing Paul is a thing that seems feasible, which is pretty unfair if you ask him). He wants to kiss Paul so badly, but he ends up not going through with it because he doesn’t feel brave enough to actually find out what’s on the other side of trying to mess up a life-long friendship just because he’s drunk and has caught a bad case of the feelings. He lowers his hands and gives Paul a pat on the back like a proper bro would. “Thank you for walking me home, man. Have fun in class.”

Paul starts getting ready to leave, but Ted gets a text message before he’s out the door.

It’s a reply from Emma:  _ 1) paul’s a bitch, 2) wtf???? he’s never even had my coffee, he always just waits for you to get to work, 3) why tf are you still (already??) awake _

And yeah, sure. Part of him wants to reply to Emma, but part of him sees Paul heading for the door so instead, he just worms his way between Paul and the door, closing the door behind him, only to turn around and finding himself face to face with Paul. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Paul says, raising an eyebrow at him. “What… What are you doing?”

Ted shrugs. “I don’t know,” he says, because he truly doesn’t know. Paul lying to him (if he is to trust Emma) must mean  _ something  _ – but what? He doesn’t know the answer to that either. He wants it to mean that Paul is into him as well, but what if it doesn’t?

Drunk Ted makes a decision: If it doesn’t, sober Ted can deal with the aftermath. Sober Ted can make up an excuse if that’s what it comes to. He places a hand on the back of Paul’s head and quickly eyes his lips, before pulling him into a kiss.

And luckily, Paul doesn’t pull away. He presses Ted up against the door and he kisses him back and everything’s pretty fucking good, all of a sudden. And maybe Paul's right. Maybe time _is_ relative, because it feels like it's stopped and Ted isn't sure he wants it to start again.


End file.
